Union Bank released their numbers today. Now, I have not had a chance to look at the 10Q, <a href="http://www.housingwire.com/2008/07/21/unionbancal-dances-with-wall-street-analysts/">but here is what Paul at HousingWire said today</a>.
<em>Looking at the numbers, second-quarter profit at UnionBanCal declined 15 percent to $141.3 million, or $1.02 per diluted common share; this compared with $165.4 million, or $1.19 per diluted common share, a year earlier, and $108.6 million, or $0.79 per diluted common share, one quarter earlier.
The bank counted $14.2 billion in residential mortgages and $2.5 billion in construction loans among its $58 billion in total assets at the end of the second quarter.
<strong>Non-performing assets jumped by more than seven-fold from year-ago levels, reaching $225 million ? and that Q2 NPA total also represented a 70.4 percent jump in NPAs from the first quarter alone. For those keeping score at home, that?s a pretty sudden and steep trajectory.</strong>
Against this total, in second quarter 2008, UnionBanCal?s total provision for credit losses was $100 million, up 25 percent from one quarter earlier. Loan loss reserves reached $527 million, net of charge-offs, as a result. Net loans charged-off for second quarter 2008 reached $31 million, or 0.28 percent of average total loans; compared to first quarter activity, charge-off velocity increased 158 percent within one quarter.
In other words, credit quality is clearly going to eat into the bank?s reserves as more loans continue to go south. But, to be fair, UnionBanCal isn?t expected to have to raise capital, either, given the existing cushion of reserves in place.
Investors clearly took heart in the better-than-expected results ? but it was the bank?s suggestion that things will actually look better than expected when third quarter results are released that truly captured attention. From a California-based bank, too, no less.
UnionBanCal said it expects to record lower loss provision charges in the third quarter, between $65 and $85 million, meaning that earnings from continuing operations would be between $1.10 and $1.20 per share in the third quarter ? the entire range would beat current analyst expectations, according to a Reuters report, which had pegged Q3 earnings at the bank at $1.01 for the upcoming quarter.</em>
I am not saying they are doomed to fail with this news, but the numbers were not pretty and the bad numbers are increasing at an extremely high rate. The fact that the CEO thinks they will do better in Q3 and Q4 reminds me of those conference calls with the Tan Man saying how well positioned CW was. Sorry, but the increases in NPAs will increase in Q3 and Q4 and they will require more reserves that eat into their assets. I don't like clueless CEOs that should know what they are saying is a lie, but I do like to profit from it... :coolhmm: